Italian traditional tomato varieties: a focus on the Campania region

[EN] The long tradition of tomato cultivation in Italy has allowed the evolution of a wide diversity of traditional varieties or landraces that have been cultivated for centuries and many of them are still common in the local markets. Adaptation to peculiar climatic and edaphic conditions, the geographical isolation of several growing areas, the specific agro-technique, the local gardners’ selection, also based on consumers’s sensory preferences, have resulted in groups of landraces distributed not only by region but also by sub-regional areas. In most cases, the cultivation of these Italian landraces covers very limited areas being carried out in family gardens for personal consumption and/or in small-size farms that, therefore, play a key role in the on farm maintenance of this precious germplasm, which in many cases is risking extinction. The Campania region has been, and still is, an important area for tomato production with a long tradition in the selection, cultivation and processing of the crop, resulting in a rich reservoir of valuable tomato landraces. So far, only three Italian tomato landraces have been granted a Protected Geographical Status under European Union law, the PGI “Pomodoro di Pachino” form Sicily, and the two PDOs “Pomodoro S. Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino” and the “Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio” from Campania. This short review will address some of the most popular landraces of the Campania region, with a particular focus on the two PDOs.[ES] La larga tradición del cultivo del tomate en Italia ha permitido la evolución de una amplia diversidad de variedades tradicionales o variedades autóctonas que han sido cultivadas durante siglos, muchas de las cuales siguen siendo comunes en los mercados locales. La adaptación a las peculiares condiciones climáticas y edáficas, el aislamiento geográfico de varias zonas de cultivo, las técnicas de cultivo específicas, la selección de los agricultores locales, también basada en las preferencias sensoriales de los consumidores, han dado como resultado grupos de variedades locales distribuidas no sólo por regiones, sino por áreas sub-regionales. En la mayoría de los casos, el cultivo de estas variedades autóctonas italianas cubre áreas muy limitadas y se están llevando a cabo en huertos familiares para consumo personal y / o en fincas pequeñas que, por lo tanto, desempeñan un papel clave en el mantenimiento de este valioso germoplasma, que en muchos casos está en peligro de extinción. La región de Campania ha sido, y sigue siendo, un área importante para la producción de tomate con una larga tradición en la selección, cultivo y procesamiento de este cultivo, resultando en un rico reservorio de variedades autóctonas de tomate valiosas. Hasta el momento, sólo tres variedades autóctonas de tomate italiano han obtenido el estatus de protección geográfica conforme a la legislación de la Unión Europea, la IGP “Pomodoro di Pachino” de Sicilia y las dos DOP “Pomodoro S. Marzano dell'Agro Sarnese-Nocerino” y “Pomodorino Del Piennolo del Vesuvio" de Campania. Esta breve revisión abordará algunas de las razas tradicionales más populares de la región de Campania, con especial atención a las dos DOP.This work was supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 program (TRADITOM grant 634561 to S.G. and P.S.).Sacco, A.; Cammareri, M.; Vitiello, A.; Palombieri, S.; Riccardi, R.; Spigno, P.; Grandillo, S. (2020). Italian traditional tomato varieties: a focus on the Campania region. En I Congrés de la Tomaca Valenciana: La Tomaca Valenciana d'El Perelló. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 179-193. https://doi.org/10.4995/TOMAVAL2017.2017.6526OCS17919

Quinic acids from Aster caucasicus and from transgenic callus expressing a beta-amyrin synthase.

Several different classes of secondary metabolites, including flavonoids, triterpenoid saponins and quinic acid derivatives, are found in Aster spp. (Fam. Asteraceae). Several Aster compounds revealed biological as well as pharmacological activities. In this work, a phytochemical investigation of A. caucasicus evidenced the presence of quinic acid derivatives, as well as the absence of triterpene saponins. To combine in one species the production of different phytochemicals, including triterpenes, an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of A. caucasicus was set up to introduce A. sedifolius β-amyrin synthase (AsOXA1)-encoding gene under the control of the constitutive promoter CaMV35S. The quali-quantitative analysis of transgenic calli with ectopic expression of AsOXA1 showed, in one sample, a negligible amount of triterpene saponins combined with higher amount of quinic acid derivatives as compared with the wild type callus

Investigating physicochemical, volatile and sensory parameters playing a positive or a negative role on tomato liking

This study aimed at providing further insights into the positive and negative drivers of tomato liking. For this purpose, 13 tomato cultivars representing different typologies were characterized for physicochemical parameters and aroma volatiles, and were assessed by a trained panel for sensory descriptors, and by Italian consumers for liking. The relationships among the different parameters and their effects on consumer liking were studied by Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis. Among physicochemical traits and sensory descriptors, seeds, reducing sugars, firmness, thick epicarp, soluble solids, sour taste, total acidity, citrate, herbaceous aroma and brightness were found to be drivers of liking, whereas pulp thickness, humidity, fruit weight, diacetyl-like odor and mealiness showed an opposite influence. For the aroma volatiles, 2-isobutylthiazole played a key role on liking and its positive contribution seemed to be supported by (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol, but suppressed by 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-ol, especially when tomatoes had a poor volatile fraction. These results represent a contribution to the knowledge that could lead to more effective breeding strategies aimed at improving tomato sensory quality. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

TP53 and p16INK4A, but not H-KI-Ras, are involved in tumorigenesis and progression of pleomorphic adenomas.

The putative role of TP53 and p16INK4A tumor suppressor genes and Ras oncogenes in the development and progression of salivary gland neoplasias was studied in 28 cases of pleomorphic adenomas (PA), 4 cases of cystic adenocarcinomas, and 1 case of carcinoma ex-PA. Genetic and epigenetic alterations in the above genes were analyzed by Polymerase Chain Reaction/Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism (PCR/SSCP) and sequencing and by Methylation Specific-PCR (MS-PCR). Mutations in TP53 were found in 14% (4/28) of PAs and in 60% (3/5) of carcinomas. Mutations in H-Ras and K-Ras were identified in4%(1/28) and7% (2/28) of PAs, respectively. Only 20% (1/5) of carcinomas screened displayed mutations in K-Ras. p16INK4A promoter hypermethylation was found in 14% (4/28) of PAs and 100% (5/5) carcinomas. All genetic and epigenetic alterations were detected exclusively in the epithelial and transitional tumor components, and were absent in the mesenchymal parts. Our analysis suggests that TP53 mutations and p16INK4A promoter methylation, but not alterations in the H-Ras and K-Ras genes, might be involved in the malignant progression of PA into carcinoma. J. Cell. Physiol. 207: 654–659, 2006. 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Retinoic acid-induced 1 gene haploinsufficiency alters lipid metabolism and causes autophagy defects in Smith-Magenis syndrome

Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by cognitive and behavioral symptoms, obesity, and sleep disturbance, and no therapy has been developed to alleviate its symptoms or delay disease onset. SMS occurs due to haploinsufficiency of the retinoic acid-induced-1 (RAI1) gene caused by either chromosomal deletion (SMS-del) or RAI1 missense/nonsense mutation. The molecular mechanisms underlying SMS are unknown. Here, we generated and characterized primary cells derived from four SMS patients (two with SMS-del and two carrying RAI1 point mutations) and four control subjects to investigate the pathogenetic processes underlying SMS. By combining transcriptomic and lipidomic analyses, we found altered expression of lipid and lysosomal genes, deregulation of lipid metabolism, accumulation of lipid droplets, and blocked autophagic flux. We also found that SMS cells exhibited increased cell death associated with the mitochondrial pathology and the production of reactive oxygen species. Treatment with N-acetylcysteine reduced cell death and lipid accumulation, which suggests a causative link between metabolic dyshomeostasis and cell viability. Our results highlight the pathological processes in human SMS cells involving lipid metabolism, autophagy defects and mitochondrial dysfunction and suggest new potential therapeutic targets for patient treatment

Long-Term Sphere Culture Cannot Maintain a High Ratio of Cancer Stem Cells: A Mathematical Model and Experiment

Acquiring abundant and high-purity cancer stem cells (CSCs) is an important prerequisite for CSC research. At present, researchers usually gain high-purity CSCs through flow cytometry sorting and expand them by short-term sphere culture. However, it is still uncertain whether we can amplify high-purity CSCs through long-term sphere culture. We have proposed a mathematical model using ordinary differential equations to derive the continuous variation of the CSC ratio in long-term sphere culture and estimated the model parameters based on a long-term sphere culture of MCF-7 stem cells. We found that the CSC ratio in long-term sphere culture presented as gradually decreased drift and might be stable at a lower level. Furthermore, we found that fitted model parameters could explain the main growth pattern of CSCs and differentiated cancer cells in long-term sphere culture

European traditional tomatoes galore: a result of farmers’ selection of a few diversity-rich loci

A comprehensive collection of 1254 tomato accessions, corresponding to European traditional and modern varieties, early domesticated varieties, and wild relatives, was analyzed by genotyping by sequencing. A continuous genetic gradient between the traditional and modern varieties was observed. European traditional tomatoes displayed very low genetic diversity, with only 298 polymorphic loci (95% threshold) out of 64 943 total variants. European traditional tomatoes could be classified into several genetic groups. Two main clusters consisting of Spanish and Italian accessions showed higher genetic diversity than the remaining varieties, suggesting that these regions might be independent secondary centers of diversity with a different history. Other varieties seem to be the result of a more recent complex pattern of migrations and hybridizations among the European regions. Several polymorphic loci were associated in a genome-wide association study with fruit morphological traits in the European traditional collection. The corresponding alleles were found to contribute to the distinctive phenotypic characteristic of the genetic varietal groups. The few highly polymorphic loci associated with morphological traits in an otherwise a low-diversity population suggests a history of balancing selection, in which tomato farmers likely maintained the morphological variation by inadvertently applying a high selective pressure within different varietal types.This work was supported by the European Commission H2020 research and innovation program through TRADITOM grant agreement no. 634561, G2P-SOL, grant agreement no. 677379, and HARNESSTOM grant agreement no. 101000716. MP is grateful to the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación for a postdoctoral grant (IJC2019-039091-I/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).Postprint (published version

Targeting colorectal cancer stem cells with inducible caspase-9

Colorectal cancer stem cells (CSCs) drive tumor growth and are suggested to initiate distant metastases. Moreover, colon CSCs are reportedly more resistant to conventional chemotherapy, which is in part due to upregulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family members. To determine whether we could circumvent this apoptotic blockade, we made use of an inducible active caspase-9 (iCasp9) construct to target CSCs. Dimerization of iCasp9 with AP20187 in HCT116 colorectal cancer cells resulted in massive and rapid induction of apoptosis. In contrast to fluorouracil (5-FU)-induced apoptosis, iCasp9-induced apoptosis was independent of the mitochondrial pathway as evidenced by Bax/Bak double deficient HCT116 cells. Dimerizer treatment of colon CSCs transduced with iCasp9 (CSC-iCasp9) also rapidly induced high levels of apoptosis, while these cells were unresponsive to 5-FU in vitro. More importantly, injection of the dimerizer into mice that developed a colon CSC-iCasp9-induced tumor resulted in a strong decrease in tumor size, an increase in tumor cell apoptosis and a clear loss of CD133+ CSCs. Taken together, our data indicate that dimerization of iCasp9 circumvents the apoptosis block in CSCs, which results in effective tumor regression in vivo

BAG1: The Guardian of Anti-Apoptotic Proteins in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

BCL2 associated Athano-Gene 1 (BAG1) is a multifunctional protein that has been described to be involved in different cell processes linked to cell survival. It has been reported as deregulated in diverse cancer types. Here, BAG1 protein was found highly expressed in children with acute myeloid leukemia at diagnosis, and in a cohort of leukemic cell lines. A silencing approach was used for determining BAG1's role in AML, finding that its down-regulation decreased expression of BCL2, BCL-XL, MCL1, and phospho-ERK1/2, all proteins able to sustain leukemia, without affecting the pro-apoptotic protein BAX. BAG1 down-regulation was also found to increase expression of BAG3, whose similar activity was able to compensate the loss of function of BAG1. BAG1/BAG3 co-silencing caused an enhanced cell predisposition to death in cell lines and also in primary AML cultures, affecting the same proteins. Cell death was CASPASE-3 dependent, was accompanied by PARP cleavage and documented by an increased release of pro-apoptotic molecules Smac/DIABLO and Cytochrome c. BAG1 was found to directly maintain BCL2 and to protect MCL1 from proteasomal degradation by controlling USP9X expression, which appeared to be its novel target. Finally, BAG1 was found able to affect leukemia cell fate by influencing the expression of anti-apoptotic proteins crucial for AML maintenance

WHOLE-GENOME RE-SEQUENCING OF TWO TOMATO LANDRACES REVEALS SEQUENCE VARIATIONS UNDERPINNING KEY ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT TRAITS

In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is the identification of alleles directly responsible for phenotype variation among different genotypes within the same species. Tomato is a model crop for understanding the development and ripening of climacteric fleshy fruits, and it is also known to be an important source of health-promoting compounds. In addition, cultivated tomato germplasm shows a high phenotypic variation despite its very low genetic diversity. Toward the identification of sequence variations responsible for stress tolerance, high fruit quality and long shelf life, we re-sequenced the genomes of two traditional landraces grown in the Campania region (Southern Italy). Crovarese, belonging to the Corbarino type (COR), and Lucariello (LUC) are typically grown under low water regimes and produce highly appreciated fruits, which can be stored up to 4-8 months. We generated 65.8M and 56.4M of paired-end 30-150 bp reads with an average insert size of 380 bp (± 52bp) and 364 bp (± 49bp) for COR and LUC, respectively. A referenceguided assembly was performed using 'Heinz 1706' as a reference genome. We estimated a mean coverage depth of ~15X for COR and 13X for LUC. Comparing the genomes of COR and LUC with that of 'Heinz 1706' we found a similar distribution of SNPs (68.8% vs. 69.9%, respectively), small deletions (8.9% vs. 8.6%) and small insertions (22.1% vs. 21.3%). Through a de novo assembly of the unmapped reads we identified 29 and 36 new contigs in COR and LUC, respectively. The new contigs could be assigned to the chromosomes thanks to the use of a splitread approach. On average, the contigs inserted in COR were 654bp, whereas those inserted in LUC were 616bp. Using custom RNA-seq data, a total of 43054 and 44576 gene loci were annotated in COR and LUC, corresponding to 62369 and 65094 transcripts, respectively. Among the genes showing a similar structure in COR and LUC compared to 'Heinz 1706', we identified ~2000 and 1700 SNPs causing potentially disruptive effects on the function of 1371 and 1201 genes in COR and LUC, respectively. Interesting GO categories highly represented in genes affected by sequence changes were identified. Major variations were present in stress-responsive genes as well as in fruit quality and development-related genes. From a practical perspective, the identified SNPs and InDels are candidate polymorphisms to track DNA variations associated to key traits of economic interest